Re: Xmas Greeting AND belated Hanukkah!!

["Lineman" <grime@dcsi.net.au>]

"Michael Kurkowski" <mk@netstra.com.au> wrote in message
news:8EA3BB36BtelstraNews@vic.news.telstra.net...
> Geez making all us younger rail transport conoisseurs jealous now arent
> we? :-) In this day of rail competition and OHS for all the wrong reasons
> (cab rides are dangerous, but crappy signalling systems arent...) it's
> hard to even compare now with back then. Who knows, maybe our kids in the
> future will not even have a chance to photograph trains because of legal
> reasons (some Liberal gov't somewhere in the future are bound to do
> this... since railways are evil).
>
> I guess it's now up to us to take what we get given, and remember it into
> the future. I sure could have done with some flat-top cabrides though,
> along with the ZL's and etc etc etc...
>
> regards
> Michael

Hit the nail on the head Im afraid Michael,unless you want to go off to some
far away land and take the chance of being shot we really have limited
oppotunities to play, but hey dont worry be happy.
In those days you would write to the traffic manager of the Victorian
Railways for the goods train time tables for the branch line you wanted to
travel on which would be duly typed up and sent to you with the Indemnity
for your parents to sign giving blanket coverage to ride in the goods
van,providing there was room (true),for that particular 14 day period at a
cost of about $19 for a student 1970/1975c
 When they took the guards van off the goods it knackered the hobby in one
foul blow,because you learnt alot from the guards that liked there jobs,they
would organise the cab ride, tell you about the lines idiosyncrasies,and
generally bend over back wards to help you out.
Graeme